Prosecutor says DNA on victim in high-profile Kentucky murder is a match to man charged
DNA found under the fingernails of a woman stabbed to death in Eastern Kentucky matches that of the man charged with killing her, the prosecutor said in a court document.
That suspect, Michael McKinney III, had “suspicious scratches” on his forearms that could explain the source of the DNA under the fingernails of the victim, Amber Spradlin, Commonwealth’s Attorney Arnold Brent Turner said in the document filed last week.
The document included information on evidence in the high-profile homicide that had not been released earlier.
Spradlin, 39, was stabbed to death on June 18, 2023 at the home of Michael McKinney II, a dentist who lives near Martin, in Floyd County.
After an investigation that lasted more than a year, authorities charged his son, McKinney III, also known as M.K., with murder in July.
Police had said earlier that Spradlin was stabbed at least 11 times in the head, neck and torso, but Turner said in the latest court filing that she was stabbed at least 12 times.
A piece of the blade of the knife broke off in her throat and was found during the autopsy.
Spradlin was with some people who had been drinking heavily at a bar and then at McKinney II’s home before she was killed, according to information in the criminal case and a related lawsuit.
McKinney III, his father and another man, Josh “Square” Mullins, also are charged with tampering with physical evidence in an alleged effort to cover up the crime. A grand jury charged that they got rid of the knife, M.K.’s clothes and surveillance cameras and cleaned up blood in the house.
The three have pleaded not guilty.
‘Glaring lack of evidence’
The document outlining evidence against McKinney III, 24, was in response to a motion from his attorney, Steven R. Romines, which argued there was a “glaring lack of evidence” against McKinney.
Romines also said that forensic tests had shown nothing to suggest McKinney was involved in killing Spradlin.
Romines made those arguments in support of a request to lower McKinney’s bond, which Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman set at $5 million.
Romines said the evidence in the case points more at Roy Kidd than at McKinney III. Kidd, McKinney’s second cousin, drank heavily with others in the group in the hours before Spradlin was killed and was belligerent, Romines wrote.
“It was Roy Kidd who was violent and out of control that morning, not MK. It was Roy Kidd whose cell phone was lying beside Amber’s bloody body that morning, not MK’s,” Romines said in the motion.
The defense motion also alleged that Kidd had blood on him and gave inconsistent statements to police, and that when police gave him a polygraph test, the examiner said “deception was indicated” when Kidd answered the question “Did you stab or cut that woman?”
Romines argued that McKinney III would not be a danger to the public or a risk to flee if he were released on bond, pointing out he stayed in the county even as pressure mounted for an arrest in Spradlin’s death and supporters put up billboards calling for justice.
Prosecutor says evidence strong
Turner, however, argued that the evidence in the case “strongly implicates” McKinney III as the killer.
The nature and pattern of Spradlin’s injuries suggests she resisted the attack on her, according to the prosecution memo.
Tests showed that the profile of DNA under the fingernails of her right hand was a match to McKinney III and his father, and importantly, that it did not match the other men in the house the morning of the murder, Kidd and Mullins, Turner said.
As for the blood on Kidd, tests showed it was his own. He had fallen while drunk, opening a large cut on his chin, Turner said.
Turner also said in a motion that the results of the polygraph test — which are not admissible in court — showed Kidd passed when asked whether he had stabbed or cut Spradlin.
Turner said that when McKinney II called 9-1-1 about 10:30 a.m. to report Spradlin’s death, he told the dispatcher that her throat had been slit.
But Turner said that because of the position of Spradlin’s body, the wounds to her neck were not evident to people viewing her body at the scene.
Turner also said that witnesses said there had been a security camera on a mantle at McKinney II’s house, pointed at the couch where the murder occurred, but when police arrived, that camera and another in the basement were gone.
“If McKinney had a camera that filmed the murder, you would think that he would want authorities to see the footage if it exonerated his son,” Turner wrote.
Coleman issued a ruling Monday denying the request to lower McKinney III’s bond.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 2:36 PM.
